A Lapse in Concentration
by Truth and Chaos
Summary: I have always known that my brother is a fool in the ways of love. Though I would never have dreamed this into existence. This unmitigated, irrational, selfish bout of self pity over a…a…a mortal. The very thought is too cruel. - One Shot -


Disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth or any character there in

* * *

Boadicea - Enya

The Mummer's Dance - Loreena McKennit

* * *

It was becoming a problem with him, this…sulking. I would have understood if it were in longing for one of our own. I could have, in time, brought myself to accept a lower Fae. This however. By Oberon's beard and queen save us, this unmitigated, irrational, selfish bout of self pity over a…a…a mortal.

A mortal.

I have always known that my brother is a fool in the ways of love. Though I would never have dreamed this into existence. The very thought is too cruel.

I had thought it a malicious rumor. A whispering among the courts.

No human, mortal or otherwise, had ever completed the Goblin Kingdom's great Labyrinth.

It was an even greater insult to hear that my brother had fallen in love with the mortal.

And she had refused his love.

The rumor that he sulked, sullen and alone in his quarters was enough.

Insult to injury. Oberon's beard and dark queen save us. I had to know if it was true.

"Be gone Irena," he mutters wearily before even the last of my cascade of ivory rose petals touches the floor.

I step over them as they fade, a cherubic pout my masque, "Jareth, would you banish me so quickly?"

"I will not explain my actions," he tells me from his perch. His crystals, once the dreaming glory of the Seelie court, circle on the tips of his fingers. He sighs, his mismatched eyes remain on the world below. His Labyrinth. "Did the king send you to berate me?"

I laugh, "The king of the light and shining court give a care for something other than preening and women?" The very idea. "Oberon forbid!"

"Then what is it you want?" He demands quite suddenly. The crystals smash on the ground, forgotten. My brother looms dark and angry as I have ever seen him.

I should fear him but I do not. I see the pain behind eyes that have always laughed. My amusement is gone. "I hear that you are heartbroken little brother. I came to see if you had need of me."

Jareth's shoulders sag just enough. Enough to tell me that there is a grain of truth among the rumors. He waves me off with one gloved hand and returns to his perch in the window. "I have heard the rumors as well. I am not as they say. I will survive."

Of that I had no doubt. My brother, though a fool in the ways of love, was a king in his own right. It was not his choice to rule the goblins but he does and he does it well. My brother, the strongest of us all would not shatter from the loss of love.

He plays with one crystal backwards and forwards, turning it and spinning it in the dying light of the Underground. There is no sign of his wicked smile. His quicksilver temperament is buried in this brooding, sulking, gloomy individual that sits before me.

"I offered her everything," He whispers to the crystal, though I am the only one to hear it. "I offered her my kingdom, my power, my very soul for her love."

"Show her to me." I do not know why the words come from my mouth, but it feels as if the question must, nay, needs to be asked. The curiosity to know who this girl, this champion of the Labyrinth, is fills me. I shall burst if I do not know.

My brother tosses his crystal to me. Within there is a girl reading from a book. Her skin is marble and alabaster. Her hair mahogany and eyes like burnt amber. She is beautiful by any standard, Seelie, Unseelie or mortal.

But she is too young.

Far too young.

Perhaps fourteen or fifteen by the human standard of years. Mayhaps an early sixteen. An adult by Faerie standards. A mere child in mortal years.

"You have always had a weakness for a woman with dark hair," I tell him.

His mismatched eyes drop from my gaze to my mouth and back again. "You have something to say."

I have never been very good at lying to my brother. I give him a sad smile, "Jareth, I have always known you to be a fool in love, but this…"

"Get out," he orders me.

The crystal bursts in my hands. The shards sting but do not cut. They sprinkle harmlessly to the ground and disappear. He glares at me with fury.

"I wish you would not jump to conclusions little brother, that is what landed you here in the first place." He scowls at me and orders me to leave again. "I will not. You will listen and when I am done I will leave you to your brooding."

His eyes are dark, hooded.

"How old is she?"

The anger drains just a little, "Old enough by our standards."

I sigh, "That is what I thought." I go to him, taking his face in my hands, "Little brother, did it not occur to you that perhaps she is not mature enough to understand the offer you presented? True that any Fae in our world would have said naught but yes and you would have, perhaps, lived happily ever after. But this girl…"

"Sarah," he says the name like a prayer. A hallowed whisper.

"This Sarah," an ancient name of power for a mortal? I have missed much. "Is yet a child. You cannot take the world of a child as doctrine. In the years to come she may yet change her mind."

He looks at me, both young and old at once, "That thought has come to me before Irena." His voice is much softer now. There is less anger and more regret. "Though hearing from someone beside myself has a sobering effect."

I smile at him. "Does it now?"

"Indeed." He replies. There is a shadow of his cocky smile upon his lips. A hint of mirth in his gaze. "How did you become so wise and remain so obstinate?"

I bat my eyelashes, "I am the go between for the courts dear brother. Should I do as you have? Tell the King of the Seelie and the Queen of the Unseelie that they should take their politics and," what were his exact words? Oh yes, "Shove them up their collective asses?"

He throws his head back and laughs.

It is good to see my brother as he should be. "Will you wait for her to call on you Jareth? It could take years for her to come to her senses."

Jareth forms another crystal, holding it on the tips of his fingers. It spins of its own accord. An image forms within but from my place I cannot see it. "What is a few years to a faerie?" He asks. "It is but the blink of an eye."

That is what I am afraid of.

* * *

I was supposed to be writing my X-Men fic. Then the muse bit me.

I imagined some of the other posted Labyrinth stories. The ones where Sarah is older and there isn't any real explanation for what happens to Jareth in the time he's waiting for her to grow up and call him to her. I saw this as plausible. I was also struck with the horrible idea that Sarah probably wont' stop aging in the Underground.

There won't be a sequel. It's a one shot. Back to writing.

**Edit on May 15, 2010:** I just realized how much easier the Escher room would have been for Sarah if she had an ASHPD with her.

...I've been playing Portal way to friken much.


End file.
